Marreese Speights

Hope everyone’s week is going well. No grid this week and instead I want to focus on the opposing bench players.

Let’s face it, in a standard league, most of the available players in the FA pool are unlikely to be starters. For fantasy purposes, that doesn’t mean they can’t contribute to categories that your team need to defend or categories that your team can unexpectedly win.

So if you haven’t listened to this morning’s Podcast yet, you wanna know what’s fun when you run the world’s awesomest Fantasy Basketball blog?! Coming home to no internet! And your ISP having no way to fix it until the next day! It just makes you think about how we in the fantasy basketball world rely on the internet, when so much of the world is still without it… I’m over here stressing like a madman wanting to be sure Razzball Hoops can still deliver our silliness, when the world at large still has a long way to go. Even though it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, I want to tell my family at the Razzball Nation table that I’m just thankful to be here, and thankful for everyone reading! …and thankful I can get to work a few hours early to bang out today’s recap… Without the internet, I wouldn’t have a job with a software company, Razzball wouldn’t exist, I’d be working at some factory or some ish, fantasy basketball would likely not exist…. Imagine calculating fantasy hoops by hand! Ahhhhh! Awful! I’m very fortunate to merely exist at this point in time and space. And to wrap up this sappy open, I want to say I’m the bigger man and certainly wouldn’t ousT What Cable provider I use… Crooks.

Anyway, so with limited hoops watching last night due to an inconsistent 4G stream, I didn’t get to watch the Celtics game and two of my REL rocks, but had a little better service to watch most of the first half of the Spurs/Sac game. First off, have you seen the new Kings arena?! The Golden 1 Center doesn’t look real! It looks like where they’d play football in Starship Troopers, ya know, with that silver football? Wasn’t there talk that this team could move a few years ago? Geez! Well for as bad as the Kings manage their personnel, they certainly can hire some Star Trek architects, that’s for damn sure. But for as cool as the new arena looks, Kawhi Leonard looks better. Sleeker. Sexier… “You are ruining moving day for us!”30/3/5/5/0 last night, giving him back-to-back 30 Pts/5 Stl games for the first time in NBA history. Ok, don’t fact check that, I’m sure it’s happened before… [edit – Rotoworld must be reading us, because about an hour after this posted, they put out this latest news blurb on Kawhi this morning…]

I feel like he’s one of the birds from Finding Nemo. “Mine! Mine mine! Mine!” But what an absolute superstar, and maybe he belonged right next to KAT a tier below the big-4 in my ranks. Maybe even within the big 4! 7-7 FT last night, giving him a 22-22 clip to begin the season. He only committed 1 TO last night too! If you watched any of this game, the Kings actually started pretty hot, and the other starting 4 Spurs looked horrific. It was all Kawhi to open the scoring, putting in San Antonio’s first 9 points. It was Kawhi 9 to Sacramento 16 halfway through the first… With the rest of the Spurs struggling a bit out of the gate, Kawhi put his team on his back, and absolutely looks like he’s in the MVP discussion. Makes you pretty happy for having a later-round pick in standard snake drafts! Here’s what else went down last night in Fantasy Hoops action:

Finally, we’ve got some action to break down on the court! And what better venue than the Summer League, where raw NBA rooks and sophs go to strut their stuff and get fantasy basketballers needlessly excited. Remember all the Mario Hezonja hype last Summer League?! Hopefully I did pretty well to quash that! Wow, surprised I was right that “quash” was a word… I thought people were just saying squash too fast!

But one guy I definitely don’t want to squash/quash is second-year PG Cameron Payne. We were pretty big on this guy coming out of the draft last year, and he really surprised as a rookie overtaking D.J. Augustin as the backup to Russell Westbrook by going 14.6/4.4/5.6/1.9/0.3 in per-36 during 2015-16, with only 2.3 TO. He didn’t shoot particularly well (41%), but a lot of that was due to nearly 40% of his shots being treys. In his one start of 2015-16, he went 17/3/7 against the Spurs who shockingly weren’t resting anyone.

In the Orlando Summer League which wrapped a couple days ago, Payne led the league in scoring at 18.8 Pts a game, averaging 4 AST to only 2.5 TO. Not huge in the AST total, but that’s a ton of usage for a very few giveaways. The deep ball was still a little meh only going 4-14 from the perimeter, but he did have a 14-14 FT game in there. The Thunder squad (or quad, maybe?) went 4-0 in the games he played, and Payne looks primed for a bigger role with OKC.

With all the talk on Russell Westbrook being shopped (and even if he isn’t traded pre-season, a deadline deal would be very likely), a lot of focus has been on what newly acquired Victor Oladipo could do. No Westbrook and no other big-time creators would obviously be big for RainbOladipo. But lost in that noise is what it would mean for Cameron Payne. I think he’d all but certainly shift into the starting line-up (or at least near-starting minutes, if they still wanted to start Andre Roberson), and give a nice low-TO line with a handful of dimes and steals. The FG% might be lacking, but he would become a top-80ish asset in my mind. So while visions of sugarplums and rainbow lines for Oladipo might cloud your Christmas Eve dreams if Westy is traded, don’t forget about the huge opportunity it would give Major Payne. Here’s what else has caught my eye thus far during 2016’s Summer Ball:

First off – F this snow! Sorry about the delay with comments yesterday as my power was out almost the whole day and also claimed our Podcast. What did we do in a world without power?! Fantasy basketball would be mad, mad tough. Dr. Naismith’s Fantasy Peach Buckets League! Since we didn’t get to it on the Pod – be sure and check out the SideLeague app in the GooglePlay and App Store to play in their weekend contest starting tonight. Download the app now, and once you’ve set up your account, enter promo code RAZZBALL for $5 free dollars! And friend me “[email protected]” so we can smack talk our squads!

Well, the late-season injury bug has become an all-out Mothra, with Darren Corrison having surgery on a core muscle and is likely out for the year with a re-evaluation in 3-6 weeks. With the Kings going nowhere, I highly doubt he comes back this year. Obviously droppable in all redrafts, it opens up monster playing time for Ray McCallum and grandpa Andre Miller. Of course Old Man Karl is keen to his fellow retirees, and has said Miller and Ray Mac will split minutes close to down the middle. Ray in for defense and Andre for O. Miller makes for an interesting add in 14ers if you’re looking for dimes and Ray for overall upside. But neither quite crack the 12er range unless streaming. Still would rather the “unconditioned” Isaiah Canaan or Aaron Brooks. Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy hoops action:

Well, one outta three of the letters in MCW is in efficient… That makes sense seeing as he usually shoots 33%!

In his debut for the Bucks, Michael Carter-Williams looked solid against his former Sixers for 7/0/8/2/0 in only 17 and a half minutes. All with only one TO! Shot 3-5 from the field, did split his two FT, but a mad efficient game in his new colors. Off the toe sprain, I’m not surprised his minutes were kept in check as the Bucks unsurprisingly took it to the Sixers. Full tank! Yesterday on the Podcast, Slim said even a great game wouldn’t have him change his MCW valuation too much, and he’s the logical one. But I’m antsy and loved what I saw! I don’t think he’s suddenly the top-50 guy I thought he’d be, but I think he’ll keep the %s in check with that decent MIL supporting cast, and he won’t make you want to kill yourself. And if that isn’t a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is…. Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball:

I feel like I’ve played this song and dance all year. “I love KCP!” “KCP is dead to me!” “He’s a usable ThrAGNOF!” “He’s worse than month-old stroganoff!” And on and on and on like a never clean addict. “Why can’t I quit you?!”

In what was a great game until the 4th quarter, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had maybe one of his best games as a pro. It didn’t show up in any glaring numbers on the stat sheet, but this new backcourt with Reggie Jackson is mad fun. KCP for 21/2/1/2/0 hitting 7-13 FG (5-7 3PTM) including two ridiculous threes in transition. Both would’ve been near-cringeworthy if he missed them! Lead the break in unfavorable numbers (more or less was just KCP vs. 2 or 3 defenders) and pulled up leaning forward burying them both. Then in back-to-back plays, knocked the ball of LeBron James‘ leg for a TO then drew a charge, both in transition where LeBron is his best. Just the overall confidence and swagger was there that I haven’t always seen. Then again, I am always biased due to the addiction! I was brushing my teeth with my finger and hopping around like a madman this whole game… Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

Sometime before the weekend, Blake Griffin had a fairly routine (and he’s had a few) elbow draining. Blake’s draining jumpers, the team docs are draining elbows! But over the weekend the elbow developed a staph infection, and he’ll have surgery and won’t be evaluated until after the All-Star Break. Blake is firing off jumpers and the team docs are about to be fired! Reports are saying it could be a 4-6 week sort of thing, but with staph infections you never know. Either way, he’s an obvious hold in all leagues. While Blake goes all Leo McGarry on us, Samurai Spencer Hawes and his little hair bun went 17/1/0/0/1 on 7-16 shooting with two treys in 35 minutes. Samurai Spence should be an add in virtually all leagues, as his mix of scoring/treys/blocks can help a lot of teams. Sure he won’t board almost at all for a big with DeAndre Jordan swallowing em all up, but we can ignore that. Kinda like how Denis McDonough ignored that second “n” in his first name. What is it with “Mc” real-life and fictional Chiefs of Staph?! I bet the Oval Office whisky is well stocked… Here’s what else went down over the weekend in fantasy basketball action:

With the football season over we can now fully concentrate on the NBA. Last weekend the article did awesome. I had my best day of the year and if you followed the write up I am sure you did well too. We have a 7 game slate on tap for tonight. I want you to take note that I am not going to write up any of the starting Golden St. players. It’s not that they aren’t good plays. Golden St. is in the middle of a tough schedule. They are playing their 6th game in 8 days, the third set of a series of b2b’s. After playing a tough game in Atlanta last night, a game against the Knicks gives Steve Kerr a opportunity to limit the minutes or rest some of the starters.

After a tough groin injury, we really weren’t sure how long DeMar DeRozan would be Frozen. “Let it go! Let it go! Blah dee, blah dee, blah…” Trying to reach out to our younger readers.

DD is back and immediately entices with immense cleavage! Younger readers, alienated. DeRozan returned after missing a month and a half/21 games for a very solid 20/4/4/1/1 game hitting 9-14 FG. It was against the soon to be relegated Sixers, so there’s that, but this is mighty encouraging. In a game where Toronto didn’t need him at all, he started, got 29 minutes, and looks healthy for the stretch run. Toronto letting the DD out! I bet chicks aren’t letting the DD out this time of year in Canada, sheesh it’s cold in NC! Lots of ripples with DeRozan back out there. The biggest is it looks like James Johnson can go in several leagues, as sad an epitaph as it is… Played only 15 minutes for 5/2/2/0/0. Some of that was probably matchup based since the Sixers backup depth is in guards (and Amir Johnson played well), but it’s a swift death. Terrence Ross also played only 18 minutes as the starter and scored 2 Pts without doing anything else. Ross is barely 16-teamer worthy now, as one of the deepest lineups in the NBA is healthy top to bottom. The Raptors bench could probably contend for a playoff spot in the East. Well they’d have to replace Tyler Hansbrough. I think one of those inflatable flailing arms things has more ball skills than Psycho T… Here’s what else went down last night in fantasy basketball action:

I’ve never been a huge fan of his, but at least Mo Williams makes it really easy to have a punny title…

I would’ve said you’re as high as Busta Rhymes if you told me Mo Will was about to drop 50 last night. What a crazy, crazy world we live in where the T’Wolves finally break out of their 15-game losing streak behind a franchise record 52-point game. Some really weird biguns for the Wolves, remember when Corey Brewer put up 51 last year? So both of those guys stay in the franchise record books as better scorers than Kevin Love or Kevin Garnett. Go figure. Makes me wanna headbutt something! Mo with an unbelievable line of 52/4/7 hitting 19-33 FG (6-11 3PTM 8-9 FT). Where to even start with the crazy?! Mo hadn’t scored 30 since MARCH 2012 (!!) according to our friends at Rotoworld. I would look at his game-logs to fact check, but we don’t fact check! And as good as this game is, he’s not even a good pickup! I think that’s the craziest thing… Ricky Rubio is almost back to retake the PG minutes, and even if Flip wanted to run some combo guard lineups out there, Kevin Martin (so many Kevins in Timberwolves history!) is almost back. Plus this game should make him easier to sell in the NBA. Might get the Wolves a first rounder. So while Mo is maybe worth an add for the very short-term (only 32% owned on Yahoo late last night), I’m certainly not losing anyone of value for him. Here’s what else went down on a crazy and injury-riddled night of NBA action: